Houston Set to Expand Ideson Library
Based on Cram’s Original Intentions
h o u s t o n Eighty-four years after opening
as Houston’s Central Library, the Julia Ideson
Building will finally be completed according to
the plans of its original architect, Ralph Adams
Cram. Dedicated in 1926 and named for the
city librarian who pressured for a new facility
to replace the Carnegie Library of 1904, the
Ideson Building is about to undergo restoration
by Gensler’s Houston office.
Cram’s use of the plateresque style of the
early Spanish Renaissance for the library was,
like his composite Eastern Mediterranean
confection at Rice University, a personal choice
of an appropriate style to reflect the area’s traditions and climate. His design for the downtown
library was originally intended as a picturesque
composition of a main block oriented east-west
with a projecting wing to the west and another
wing to the south that defined several fenced
gardens. However, the west wing was eventually
shortened and the south wing was never built.
The library was planned as the cornerstone
for a new civic center designed in a belated City
Beautiful mode by Hare and Hare of Kansas City,
Mo. The 1925 scheme arranged several court
buildings and a city-county administrative
building around a long reflecting pool. Today,
the only remnants are the Ideson Building, the
1939 City Hall, and the reflecting pool.
With Cram’s drawings at hand, Gensler’s lead
architect, Barry Moore, FAIA, has fashioned
a strategy that will realize the south wing that
was never built. While the exterior facades will
duplicate the intended originals, the new inte-

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rior spaces will house state-of-the-art archive
storage and work areas for staff and the public.
With much of the library materials moved to
high-density shelving in the new wing, the
grand lobbies and reading rooms of the historic
building will be opened up for additional new
uses like special events, receptions, and exhibits. The new south wing will also enclose one of
Cram’s gardens, an outdoor space that was never
developed but now will be accessible from the
reading rooms and used for events.
The library has had previous renovations,
first in 1958 by Louis Glover that infilled arched
loggias with windows, removed lobby arcades,
and installed suspended ceilings to cover duct-

work. A renovation by S.I. Morris Associates
in 1979 reversed many of these intrusions and
restored original floors, woodwork, and plaster
details. The new Central Library, designed by
Morris and completed in 1975, on the block to
the west took over the general library operations
that year and the Ideson was then dedicated to
the city’s archives as the library system’s Metropolitan Research Center. Gensler’s new restoration will return the facades and all the public
spaces to their 1926 appearance. In addition,
the project will bring the building up to code,
especially for handicapped accessibility.
Although the Texas Historical Commission has approved the project, the decision to
reconstruct the never-built south wing technically runs counter to the U.S. Secretary of the
Interior’s Standards for Restoration. Known
as the “Ten Commandments” of preservation,
those federal standards state that “designs
that were never executed historically will not
be constructed.”
The construction cost, estimated at $25 million, will be funded by private donations and
an $8 million city contribution. Seeded with
an initial contribution of $2 million by Phoebe
and Bobby Tudor, the non-profit Julia Ideson
Library Preservation Partners was formed to
raise funds. Construction is expected to start
this summer, with the library’s rededication
planned for late 2010.
G e r a l d

M o o r h e a d ,

F A I A

The writer is a Texas Architect contributing editor.

(top left) The expansion will be at the back of the building. (above) Hare and Hare proposed this plan for the Houston
Civic Center, with the Julia Ideson Building shown at far left.